Briana Contreras

PEPFAR, having invested $100 billion and saved 25 million lives in the global fight against HIV/AIDS, faces Congressional hurdles in its reauthorization due to abortion debates. Despite widespread support and no evidence of abortion-related activities, the legislative process is at a standstill. Members of PEPFAR and authors of a recent editorial stress the significance of PEPFAR and advocate for integrating behavioral and social science into healthcare programs to achieve UNAIDS targets and address barriers in HIV/AIDS testing and treatment.

In 2019, the worldwide burden of HCV exceeded 58 million people, with 14.9 million infections occurring in women aged 15 to 49 years.

Prior to the IRA, there were no limits on beneficiary OOP spending throughout the year. However, by 2025 the IRA will introduce the $2,000 maximum OOP expenses.

Coffee, rich in polyphenolic compounds like chlorogenic acid (CGA), caffeic acid (CAA), cafestol, melanoidins and trigonelline, has been recognized as a dominant source of CGA in various studies. Previous studies suggest that CGA in coffee can positively impact blood pressure, lipid profile, glycemia and insulin resistance.

Harsha Rajasimha, MD, founder and executive chairman of IndoUSrare, spoke to MHE about the current disparities in diversity and ethnicity in rare disease clinical trials in the U.S., as well as what he's seeing in clinical trials for diseases like hemophilia, in specific.

COVID-19 misinformation interventions should involve public health experts, establish consistent outcome measures and more to address health misinformation at individual, community and systems levels, according researchers of a recent study.

This was found to be true in a cross-sectional study published in BMC, where 890 adults with HIV and 1,364 HIV-negative adults in China completed the trial through a self-administered online survey.

In recent years, the use of drone technologies and healthcare delivery has become a hot topic in scholarly discussions as they have attributed to address challenges associated with poor road conditions, transportation limitations and the need for more efficient responses to healthcare emergencies.

Wayne B. Batchelor, M.D., Associate Director of Inova Heart and Vascular Institute, discusses the latest advancements in less invasive techniques for treating pulmonary regurgitation.

Briana Contreras, an editor with Managed Healthcare Executive, spoke with Harsha Rajasimha, MD, founder and executive chairman of IndoUSrare, in this month's episode of Tuning in to the C-Suite podcast. The conversation was about how the disparity in diversity and ethnicity in rare disease clinical trials in the U.S. has led to gaps in understanding diseases and conditions, jeopardizing universal health, and increasing the economic burden of healthcare.

A recent study revealed that virtual urgent care (VUC) had minimal impact on emergency department visits or hospital admissions in Ontario, Canada, during the COVID-19 pandemic. However, a significant number of study participants who initially sought virtual urgent care eventually attended an emergency department in person.

Albert S. Khouri, M.D., a professor of ophthalmology at the Rutgers New Jersey Medical School, discusses teleophthalmology’s role in outreach efforts and improving ophthalmic care in the emergency room.

Albert S. Khouri, M.D., says ophthalmic care lends itself to telehealth because it is image based. As with many other areas of medicine, the COVID-19 pandemic accelerated adoption.

Delivering medication in the suprachoroidal space would be less invasive than intravitreal injections used to deliver many eye treatments.

Suber S. Huang, M.D., MBA, a panelist for a session about late-breaking research, said the presentation about Syfovre complications among patients treated at the Wolfe Eye Clinic in Iowa is one of the most important of this year's annual meeting. Five patients experienced complications from the new drug for geographic atrophy.

The announcement has triggered a wave of concerns among users of eye-care products, particularly in those designed to alleviate dry and irritated eyes.

Data from the study revealed that about half of the patients did not receive any treatment during their 12-month follow-up.

As the HIV epidemic rises in China, Chinese men who have sex with men (MSM) face various mental health difficulties, including suicide ideation, depression and stigma.

The risk of stroke is not as likely for adults 65 years and above who have taken the Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna COVID-19 bivalent vaccines. However, there may be an elevated risk of stroke when COVID boosters are paired with high-dose flu vaccines, particularly in adults 85-years-old and above.

Authors of a recent JAMA Network Open study expressed there have been few reported COVID surveillance studies of childcare centers and none in the U.S. Authors stress that it's essential for policymakers to understand the real risk of COVID spread in CCCs and households so they can apply suitable mitigation measures if there were to be another surge or new variants to come about.

Managing Editor of Managed Healthcare Executive, Peter Wehrwein, had a discussion with William Shrank, M.D., a venture partner with Andreessen Horowitz, a venture capital firm in Menlo Park, California, about how artificial intelligence's role is improving healthcare, where we are today with value-based care and the ongoing efforts of reducing waste in the healthcare space for this episode of the "What's on Your Mind" podcast series.

In a platinum award winning poster presented at the AMCP Nexus 2023 conference in Orlando, “Specialty drug use varies by race and wage among employees with employer-sponsored health insurance,” authors expressed that spending on specialty medications for autoimmune conditions has increased in recent years, raising affordability concerns for employers.

Adopting evolving computer system tools like artificial intelligence and machine learning in managed care pharmacies have resulted in efficiency when addressing the challenges they are faced with, according to Jessica Hatton, PharmD, BCACP, associate vice president of Pharmacy at CareSource and Nick Trego, PharmD, senior vice president of Clinical Analytics and Client Services at HealthPlan Data Solutions, Inc.

Jessica Hatton, PharmD, BCACP, associate vice president of Pharmacy at CareSource caught up with MHE to discuss value assessment tools and their use in the managed care pharmacy space. This topic and more were addressed by Hatton during her presentation today in Orlando at the AMCP Nexus 2023 conference.

In a session presented at the AMCP Nexus 2023 conference in Orlando, Adam Colborn, JD, director of Government Relations at AMCP, discussed how the recent ERISA preemption rule influenced employer pharmacy benefits, and also highlighted a policy that hasn't received much attention in the managed care pharmacy space: California's CalRx Biosimilar Insulin Initiative.

Adam Colborn, JD, director of Government Relations at AMCP, addressed topics at this year's AMCP Nexus conference in Orlando such as transparency, cost sharing mandates and variables that affect the supply and demand curve for pharmaceuticals within legislation at a federal, but mainly state level. Colborn also touched on the large PBM reform regulation happening currently in New York as it could be a model that other states can follow.